Against allowing private deemed universities to open up off campuses

The Central Executive Committee of SFI strongly condemns the HRD ministry’s decision to accept the UGC proposal allowing private deemed universities to open up to six off campuses. Public deemed universities are allowed to have more than six off campuses. It is important to positively discriminate the public deemed universities many of which are known for excellent, specialized education. Private deemed universities on the other hand have become centres of rabid commercialization. Majority of these institutes only prepare syllabus and have no mechanism to maintain and monitor the academic standards.

This is departure from the earlier position in 2007 when UGC had issued a formal notification stating that these universities cannot establish off-campus study centres or offer distance education programmes beyond the territory of the state in which they are located. About 85 Private and 4o public deemed universities are running in the country today. CEC calls upon all its state units to vigilantly keep track on the impact of this decision and intervene at appropriate juncture.